Strong interband Faraday rotation in 3D topological insulator Bi2Se3

Ohnoutek, L. and Hakl, M. and Veis, M. and Piot, B. A. and Faugeras, C. and Martinez, G. and Yakushev, M. V. and Martin, R. W. and Drasar, C. and Materna, A. and Strzelecka, G. and Hruban, A. and Potemski, M. and Orlita, M. (2016) Strong interband Faraday rotation in 3D topological insulator Bi2Se3. Scientific Reports, 6. ISSN 2045-2322

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Abstract

The Faraday effect is a representative magneto-optical phenomenon, resulting from the transfer of angular momentum between interacting light and matter in which time-reversal symmetry has been broken by an externally applied magnetic field. Here we report on the Faraday rotation induced in the prominent 3D topological insulator Bi2Se3 due to bulk interband excitations. The origin of this non-resonant effect, extraordinarily strong among other non-magnetic materials, is traced back to the specific Dirac-type Hamiltonian for Bi2Se3, which implies that electrons and holes in this material closely resemble relativistic particles with a non-zero rest mass.